After it's all said and done, will 2003 or 1979 be the better draft class?
- Thread starter SidGenoMario
- Start date
79 is not that surprising in that the 1st round players were playing in an NHL that had just expanded by 4 teams and 5 players off the top of my head had pretty impressive seasons (for underage players) in the WHA.
Not sure if 2003 draft will have more than 11 1000 game guys like 79 did (especially with the 04-05 lockout season lost) but it's a pretty impressive group of players overall IMO.
Hugh Jessiman is a huge black hole in that 1st round as I think Shawn Belle might make a career of it yet.
Not sure if 2003 draft will have more than 11 1000 game guys like 79 did (especially with the 04-05 lockout season lost) but it's a pretty impressive group of players overall IMO.
Hugh Jessiman is a huge black hole in that 1st round as I think Shawn Belle might make a career of it yet.
SidGenoMario
Registered User
2003 had a future Norris candidate (Byfuglien) picked in the 8th round and a pseudo-Conn Smythe candidate (Halak) picked in the 9th round. Unreal.
Definitely the two best draft classes ever. It would certainly be a close one. It's tough when one group is finished their careers, while the other is just entering their prime. On one hand, guys on the 2003 team have 4 or 5 good years at most, which hurts them. On the other hand, we can look at every player on the 2003 team and project them to be stars for the next decade, whereas we know that guys like Neal Broten and Rick Vaive were "only" elite in their 20's.
Since I think it's more fun to make teams, here's mine:
TEAM 1979
Glenn Anderson - Mark Messier - Mike Gartner
Michel Goulet - Neal Broten - Rick Vaive
Brian Propp - Guy Carbonneau - Dirk Graham
Mats Naslund - Dale Hunter - Mike Foligno
HM: Anton Stastny, Thomas Steen, Dave Christian, John Ogrodnick
Ray Bourque - Brad McCrimmon
Paul Reinhart - Kevin Lowe
Mike Ramsey - Craig Hartsburg
HM: Tomas Jonsson
Pelle Lindberg
Pat Riggin
HM: Rick Wamsley
TEAM 2003
Zach Parise - Eric Staal - Jeff Carter
Thomas Vanek - Ryan Getzlaf - Corey Perry
Louie Eriksson - Mike Richards - Nathan Horton
David Backes - Ryan Kesler - Dustin Brown
HM: Patrice Bergeron, Nik Zherdev, Andrei Kostitsyn, Milan Michalek, Joe Pavelski
Shea Weber - Brent Seabrook
Tobias Enstrom - Brent Burns
Ryan Suter - Dion Phaneuf
HM: Dustin Byfuglien, Matt Carle
MA Fleury
Jaro Halak
HM: Jimmy Howard
Since I think it's more fun to make teams, here's mine:
TEAM 1979
Glenn Anderson - Mark Messier - Mike Gartner
Michel Goulet - Neal Broten - Rick Vaive
Brian Propp - Guy Carbonneau - Dirk Graham
Mats Naslund - Dale Hunter - Mike Foligno
HM: Anton Stastny, Thomas Steen, Dave Christian, John Ogrodnick
Ray Bourque - Brad McCrimmon
Paul Reinhart - Kevin Lowe
Mike Ramsey - Craig Hartsburg
HM: Tomas Jonsson
Pelle Lindberg
Pat Riggin
HM: Rick Wamsley
TEAM 2003
Zach Parise - Eric Staal - Jeff Carter
Thomas Vanek - Ryan Getzlaf - Corey Perry
Louie Eriksson - Mike Richards - Nathan Horton
David Backes - Ryan Kesler - Dustin Brown
HM: Patrice Bergeron, Nik Zherdev, Andrei Kostitsyn, Milan Michalek, Joe Pavelski
Shea Weber - Brent Seabrook
Tobias Enstrom - Brent Burns
Ryan Suter - Dion Phaneuf
HM: Dustin Byfuglien, Matt Carle
MA Fleury
Jaro Halak
HM: Jimmy Howard
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Hawkey Town 18
Registered User
Seems like 79' will win in terms of top-end (it's going to be real tough for any of the 03' guys to reach Messier or Bourque levels), but 03' might have them beat out on depth. It will be fun to keep an eye this comparison as the years go on.
Steve Kournianos
@thedraftanalyst
The 1979 defense is just sickening to think about as one unit.
And I would get Michalek off the starting 12 pronto. Backes and Pavelski will both have 10 times the career Michalek will end up with.
Yeah, good call. I thought Michalek played some LW, but I guess I've been moving some guys around anyways (Carter on RW, etc), so it doesn't matter.
The 79 D unit is pretty decent for sure but the 08 Unit is the one to watch IMO.
Moses Doughty
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- Aug 19, 2008
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But on topic, 03 may end up with more depth, but not top end talent like Moose and Bubba. Even shows on the all draft team in this thread
Quite interesting that there are certain unsualities surrounding both draft in competition for "Best draft ever" (I would personally choose Velkopopovický Kozel, dark).
In case of 1979 draft, this was the first non-amateur draft and at the same time the minimum age was lowered by one year, making practically two drafts worth of players available, quite easily explaining the debt of the draft compared at least to surrounding years.
In case of 2003 draft, the draft itself was an ordinary one, but due the lockout in 2004-05, the season quite many of the promising prospect would have normally debuted in NHL, the draftees were forced to play one additional year in development leagues. Unfortunately we will never be able to confir whether the success of the draft class is in any way linked to fact.
In case of 1979 draft, this was the first non-amateur draft and at the same time the minimum age was lowered by one year, making practically two drafts worth of players available, quite easily explaining the debt of the draft compared at least to surrounding years.
In case of 2003 draft, the draft itself was an ordinary one, but due the lockout in 2004-05, the season quite many of the promising prospect would have normally debuted in NHL, the draftees were forced to play one additional year in development leagues. Unfortunately we will never be able to confir whether the success of the draft class is in any way linked to fact.
Yeah I would have to agree with that. This 2003 draft is even better than I remembered upon looking at all the names again and I would project it to be the best draft ever after 79.
